Artist Caleb Meyer’s expressive use of color and textured brushwork give his canvases a vibrancy and sculptural quality that is immediate and arresting. His rich, sculptural oil paintings depict fleeting moments in time and space. Each scene has an element of nostalgia—the light playing across the hills of a Western landscape, a rainstorm passing across a vast plain, a firelight flickering from an outdoor campfire, or a café cityscape in a misting rain. Somehow, though, there is no melancholy within the deep hues and rich paint. Instead, each canvas portrays a scene, both thoughtful and reflective, that urges viewers toward the simple beauty and joy contained within the moment.
“Contrast” by Caleb Meyer, oil on canvas, 48×28 inches.
In this respect, the tension in Caleb Meyer’s artwork arises from the calm, meditative nature of a canvas in perfect balance. His ability to capture light, pulling it across the canvas in a bright and energetic juxtaposition with the dark, becomes almost wistful in nature through Meyer’s brush so that each canvas offers a profound connection to nature and the human experience.
“My intention is to capture the essence of a scene,” said Meyer, who adds that he typically avoids heavy symbolic content and wants to convey a sense of the wonder and beauty of the natural world. Meyer describes his style as impasto impressionism (simply: a thicker application of paint), and he often paints en plein aire (outdoors), capturing a moment between abstract and representational that is as fleeting as his experience or memory of it.
A native of Hailey, Idaho, who now lives and paints at his studio in Montana, Meyer regularly returns to the mountains and valleys of central Idaho to find inspiration. As a child, Caleb enjoyed all types of art, but it was not until attending a painting class in college at Boise State University (BSU) that he discovered a passion for oil painting. While at BSU, a fellow art student bought one of his paintings for $200—an event that Meyer has said encouraged him to consider a career as a professional artist.
“My favorite assignments in college were negative space drawings or blind contour drawings,” reflected Meyer, who recalls that just staring at an object and drawing without looking or drawing the space around something helped him reach a different level in his art. “Usually, I was so focused on trying to make a drawing look right that it didn’t have any life to it.”
“Big City Lights” by Caleb Meyer.
Meyer still often uses this process (drawing or painting without looking down) when creating new works as a way to help get in the flow and capture the intent of a piece. “Starting with contour drawing offers a way to let my hand interpret the scene as my mind is seeing it so that I can get to the true essence of the painting,” he said.
The sculptural aspect of oil paint is what drew Meyer to the medium. “The workability of oils allows me to add and subtract layers to build up the image I want,” said Meyer, who often applies paint with palette knives, sculpting the surface to create his work.
After graduating from BSU in 2006, Meyer began an apprenticeship with nationally recognized painter Robert Moore. Meyer compared his time in Moore’s studio to the laying of a strong foundation. “The painting process is like building a house; a painter must understand the principles of design to create a foundation for a strong painting.”
“Stand Alone” by Caleb Myer.
Following his two-year apprenticeship in Robert Moore’s studio, Meyer accepted a job teaching art in Twin Falls, Idaho, but continued to pursue his dreams by painting in a studio set up in his garage whenever he wasn’t working with students. In 2011, after three years of teaching high school drawing and painting, Meyer left the classroom to pursue painting full-time and now paints from his studio in Montana, where he lives with his wife and three children.
Since retiring from teaching and pursuing painting full-time, Meyer has received recognition in a number of publications and was featured in Southwest Art Magazine’s “21 Under 31,” highlighting the top 21 artists under the age of 31. Meyer’s work is displayed in galleries in Montana, Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming, and his artwork has been featured in national publications, including Southwest Art, American Art Collector, Western Art Collector, Big Sky Journal, and Art & Architecture.
Meyer is genuinely inspired by and supportive of other artists and many art forms. It is telling that one of his greatest inspirations to date is knowing that one of his former students, Silas Thompson, is now enjoying his success in the art world. Meyer is calm, intentional and joyful—qualities demonstrated in his work–paintings that quietly resonate with the nostalgia of shared memories and the immediacy of shifting light.
His work can be seen at the Kneeland Gallery in Ketchum.